The trade quotes Marvin Levy, speaking on behalf of Spielberg, as saying that the project is “too important and the script is not ready, and it’s too expensive to produce. It’s back to the drawing board to see what is possible.”

Anne Hathaway, Chris Hemsworth and Ben Wishaw had been rumored to star in the film, based on Daniel H. Wilson’s science fiction novel. The book, released in 2011, is officially described as follows:

Not far into our future, the dazzling technology that runs our world turns against us. Controlled by a childlike—yet massively powerful—artificial intelligence known as Archos, the global network of machines on which our world has grown dependent suddenly becomes an implacable, deadly foe. At Zero Hour—the moment the robots attack—the human race is almost annihilated, but as its scattered remnants regroup, humanity for the first time unites in a determined effort to fight back. This is the oral history of that conflict, told by an international cast of survivors who experienced this long and bloody confrontation with the machines.

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